Bacteraemia following diagnostic and therapeutic ERCP

Thirty patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography [ERCP] were studied. Blood samples were taken just before, 5 minutes after cannulation of the papilla and, 15 minutes after the end of examination. The samples were cultured for both aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Seven cases [23.3%] showed positive cultures. The isolated organisms in 4 of them were considered as normal commensals of the skin. While in 3 cases [10%], the organism, were considered pathogenic. We concluded that ercp is a safe procedure and not accompanied by bacteraemia except in the immunocompromised cases. Thus, the immunocompromised patients should be considered a high risk for the development of bacteraemia following ERCP. The use of prophylactic antibiotics is recommended before and after procedure in all immunodepressed patients and patients with chronic valvular diseases

study of the glycosylated haemoglobin in non diabetic essential hypertensive patients

This study included 50 non diabetic subjects. 40 recently discovered essential hypertensive patients and 10 healthy subjects as a control group. The hypertensive patients were divided into 3 subgroups according to their body mass index. Glycosylated haemoglobin was insignificantly higher in hypertensive patients [7.61 +/- 0.91 versus 7.27 +/- 0.39]. Also it was insignificantly higher in female hypertensive patients than males [7.67 +/- 0.94 versus 7.53 +/- 0.88]. Blood pressure was not correlated with glycosylated haemoglobin, fasting postprandial blood sugar or body mass index. A significant negative correlation between glycosylated haermoglobin and body mass index in the overweight hypertensive patients was found. We noticed that althought glycosylated haemoglobin was higher in hypertensive group than normotensive, glycosylated haemoglobin insignificant decreases as body mass index increases. We stress the importance of investigating the relation of insulin level and/or in hypertensive patients to clarify the link between hypertension, obesity and glucose metabolism